Alums: Get Ready for the 2017 Levis Competition

Two 2017 Levis Prizes of $4,000 for a First Book of Poetry
and First Book of Fiction

Two Larry Levis Post-Graduate Stipends, one in fiction and one in poetry, are given to support graduates of the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers who are completing first books. Each 2017 award will be made to a writer in the amount of $4,000. Judges will be announced with the winning manuscripts.

Recent winners of the Larry Levis Alumni Stipend include Edward Porter and Adam Jernigan in Fiction, and Ross White, Ben Jackson, and Jenny Johnson in Poetry.

Eligibility

The Levis Stipends are open only to alumni who have not yet published a full-length collection in the selected genre in a standard edition. A standard edition is defined as 150 or more pages in a print run of 1500 or more copies for fiction, and as 48 or more pages in a print run of 500 or more copies for poetry. Entrants to the competition must hold the MFA degree from Warren Wilson College. All alumni are eligible.

Guidelines

1. All submissions must be made via Submittable. An entry fee of $30 is required to process the application.
2. Include in your application a statement regarding how the award will be used, projected completion date of the book manuscript, and a list of publication credits.
3. Include a 40-page fiction manuscript or 20-page poetry manuscript. Document margins should be at least one inch; text should be in an easily readable 12-point typeface. Pages submitted beyond the page count will not be considered. Manuscripts are judged blindly; your name should not appear anywhere on your manuscript. If it does, your application will be disqualified and removed from consideration.
4. Submit your entry via Submittable. Do not use your name in the Submittable project title or filenames. (Your project title can be either the title of your manuscript or something like “Levis poetry manuscript.”) Label your attachments “cover letter” and “manuscript.” Both must be submitted as .pdf files.

Deadlines

• Submissions will be accepted between September 1 and November 15, 2017.
• Stipends will be awarded in January 2018. Stipends are fully taxable under United Stated tax laws, and Friends of Writers must declare the awards to the Internal Revenue Service. Taxes and payments of taxes are solely the responsibility of individual award winners.

About Larry Levis

Larry Levis (1946-1996) was an award-winning poet who wrote six books of poetry during his lifetime. His collection, Elegy, was published posthumously. A Selected Poems was published in 2000. The Darkening Trapeze, a collection of last poems, was published in 2016. Levis was a much-beloved member of the faculty at the MFA Program for Writers, cherished as much for his incisive mind as for the care and attention he gave to his students.

Any queries or requests for more information should be addressed to:

Ashley Nissler

Levis Fellowship Administrator
[email protected]